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image:Nikolaus Kopernikus.jpg|250px|right|Nicolaus
Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus (in Latin; Polish
language|Polish Miko艂aj Kopernik, German
language|German Nikolaus Kopernikus); February 19,
1473 – May 24, 1543) was a Poland|Polish
astronomer, mathematician and economist who
developed the heliocentrism|heliocentric
(Sun-centered) theory of the solar system in a
form detailed enough to make it scientifically
useful. His main occupations and services rendered
were in Royal Prussia as church canon
(priest)|canon, governor and administrator,
jurist, astrologer and as a doctor. Astronomy was
actually a byproduct, a hobby of his. His theory
about the Sun as the center of the solar system,
turning over the traditional geocentric theory
(that placed Earth at the center of the Universe),
is considered one of the most important discovery
(observation)|discoveries ever, and is the
fundamental starting point of modern astronomy and
modern science itself (it inaugurated the
scientific revolution). His theory affected many
other aspects of human life as well, opening the
door to young astronomers everywhere to challenge
the dogmas and never take anything at face value.

==Biography==

Image:Warszawa
Copernicus.png|thumb|right|250px|Monument to
Copernicus in Warsaw, by Bertel Thorvaldsen

Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of
Torun|Toruń in Poland. His father Nikolas, a
citizen of Krak贸w|Cracow (at that time the
capital of Poland), moved there in 1460 and became
a respected citizen of Toruń as well, once
the war with Teutonic Knights was over. He was ten
years of age when his father, a wealthy
businessman and copper trader, died. Little is
known of his mother, Barbara Watzenrode, but she
appears to have predeceased her husband. His
maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, a church canon
(priest)|canon and later the Prince-Bishop
governor of Warmia, raised him and his three other
siblings after the death of Copernicus' father.
His brother Andrew became canon in Frombork. A
sister, Barbara, became a Benedictine nun and the
other sister, Katharina, married a businessman and
city councillor, Barthel Gertner.

In 1491 Copernicus entered the Jagiellonian
University in Krak贸w, and here he encountered
astronomy for the first time, thanks to his
teacher Albert Brudzewski. This science soon
fascinated him, as his books (stolen by Swedes
during The Deluge, and now in Uppsala's library)
show. After four years and a brief stay in
Torun|Toruń, he moved to Italy, where he
studied law and medicine at the universities of
Bologna and Padua. His uncle financed his
education and wished for him to become a bishop as
well. However, while studying canon law|canon and
civil law at Ferrara, he met his teacher Domenico
Maria Novara da Ferrara, a famous astronomer. He
followed his lessons and became a disciple and
assistant.

The first observation Copernicus made in 1497
together with Domenico Novara, are recorded in De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.

In 1497 his uncle was ordained the bishop of
Warmia and Copernicus was named a canon in the
Frombork cathedral, but he waited in Italy for the
great Roman Jubilee|Jubilee of 1500. Copernicus
went to Rome, where he could observe a lunar
eclipse and where he gave some lessons of
astronomy or mathematics (unfortunately, nothing
of this remains to us).

He would have then visited Frombork only in 1501.
As soon as he reached this town, he asked and
obtained permission to return to Italy to complete
his studies in Padua (with Guarico and Fracastoro)
and in Ferrara (with Bianchini), where in 1503
received his doctoral degree in canon law. It has
been supposed that it was in Padua that he gained
access to those passages of Cicero and Plato about
the opinion of Ancients on the movement of the
Earth, having the first intuition of his theory.
His collection of observations and ideas on the
theory started in 1504.

Having left Italy at the end of his studies, he
came to live and work in Frombork. Some time
before his return to Warmia, he had received a
position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy
Cross in Wroclaw|Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia,
which he held for many years until he resigned a
few years prior to his death, when he
progressively became ill. Throughout his lifetime
he made astronomical observations and
calculations, but always in his spare time and
never as a profession.

Copernicus worked for years with Prussian diet on
monetary reform and published some studies about
the value of money; as a governor of Warmia, he
administered taxes and dealt out justice. It was
at this time that Copernicus came up with one of
the earliest iterations of the theory now known as
Gresham's Law. During these years he also
travelled extensively on government business and
as a diplomat, on the behalf of the Prince-Bishop
of Warmia.
Image:Jan Matejko-Astronomer
Copernicus-Conversation with
God.jpg|right|300px|thumb|"Astronomer Copernicus:
Conversation with God", painted by Jan Matejko
In 1514 he made his "Commentariolus"—a
short, handwritten text describing his ideas about
the heliocentric hypothesis—available to his
friends. From there he continued gathering
evidence for a more detailed work.

During the war between Teutonic Order and Kingdom
of Poland (1519–1524) Copernicus
successfully defended Olsztyn on the head of royal
troops besieged by the troops of Albert of
Brandenburg.

In 1533 Albert Widmanstadt delivered a series of
lectures in Rome outlining Copernicus' theory. In
1536 his work was already in a definitive form,
and some rumours about his theory had reached the
scientists of all Europe. From many parts of the
continent, Copernicus received invitations to
publish it, but he felt quite apprehensive of
persecution for his revolutionary work by the
establishment of the time. The cardinal
(Catholicism)|cardinal Nicola Schoenberg of Capua
wrote him asking him to communicate his ideas more
widely and requested a copy for himself;
"Therefore, learned man, without wishing to be
inopportune, I beg you most emphatically to
communicate your discovery to the learned world,
and to send me as soon as possible your theories
about the Universe, together with the tables and
whatever else you have pertaining to the subject."
Some have proposed that this note may have made
Copernicus nervous of publication whereas others
have suggested that the church wanted to ensure
that his ideas were published.

Copernicus was still completing his work (even if
he was not convinced to publish it), when in 1539
Georg Joachim Rheticus, a great mathematician at
Wittenberg, directly arrived in Frombork. Philipp
Melanchthon had arranged with several astronomers
for Rheticus to visit and study with them.
Rheticus became a disciple of Copernicus' and
stayed with him for two years, in which he wrote a
book, Narratio prima, in which he included the
essence of the theory.

In 1542, in the name of Copernicus, Rheticus
published a treatise on trigonometry (later
included in the second book of De revolutionibus
(Copernicus)|De revolutionibus). Under the strong
pressure from Rheticus, and having seen that the
first general reception of his work had not been
favorable, Copernicus finally agreed to give the
book to his close friend Tiedemann Giese, (the
bishop of Chelmno Land, to be delivered to
Rheticus for printing at Nuremberg.

Legend says that the first printed copy of De
revolutionibus (Copernicus)|De revolutionibus was
put in Copernicus's hands the same day of his
death, so that he could say goodbye to his opus
vitae. He allegedly awoke from his stroke induced
coma, looked at his book, and died peacefully.

Copernicus was buried in the Frombork Cathedral.
However, a group of archaeologists searching for
the body of Copernicus in 2004 failed to find the
corpse of the astronomer. They found, however,
several interesting graves from various time
periods. The search for the body of Copernicus
will continue in 2005.

See also Copernicus' nationality|discussion about
Copernicus' nationality.

==The Copernican heliocentric system==
===Earlier theories===
Much has been written about earlier heliocentric
theories. Philolaus (4th century BC) was one of
the first to suppose a movement of the Earth,
probably inspired by Pythagoras's theories on a
spherical Globe.

Aristarchus of Samos (3rd century BC) developed
some theories by Heraclides Ponticus (already
talking about a revolution of our planet on its
axis) to propose what is, to the best of our
knowledge, the first serious model of a
heliocentric solar system. Unfortunately, his work
about his heliocentric hypothesis did not survive,
so we can only speculate about what led him to his
conclusions. It is notable that, according to
Plutarch, a contemporary of Aristarchus accused
him of impiety for "putting the Earth in motion".

Indian mathematicians, astronomers and physicians,
most notably Aryabhata and Bhaskara I, also
predate Copernicus' discoveries, by about 1000
years. The work of the 14th century Muslim
astronomer Ibn al-Shatir contains results similar
to those of Copernicus, and it has even been
suggested that Copernicus might have been
influenced by them.

Copernicus cited Aristarchus and Philolaus in an
early manuscript of his book which has survived,
stating: "Philolaus believed in the mobility of
the earth, and some even say that Aristarchus of
Samos was of that opinion." For reasons unknown he
crossed out this passage before publication of his
book.

===Copernican Theory===
Copernicus' major theory was published in the book
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) in the year
of his death 1543, even though he had arrived at
it several decades earlier.
Image:Kopernikus nikolaus krakau.jpg
|thumb|250px|Monument to Copernicus by Collegium
Novum of Jagiellonian University in Krakow
This book marks the beginning of the shift from a
geocentric universe|geocentric (and
anthropocentrism|anthropocentric) universe with
the Earth at its center. Copernicus held that the
Earth is another planet revolving around the fixed
sun once a year, and turning on its Axis of
rotation|axis once a day. He arrived at the
correct order of the known planets and explained
the precession of the equinoxes correctly by a
slow change in the position of the Earth's
rotational axis. He also gave a clear account of
the cause of the seasons: that the Earth's axis is
not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit. He
added another motion to the Earth, by which the
axis is kept pointed throughout the year at the
same place in the heavens; from the time of
Galileo it has been recognized that for it not to
point to the same place would be a motion.

He also replaced Ptolemy's equant circles with
epicycles. This is the main source of the
statement that his system had even more epicycles
than Ptolemy's. With this change his system had
only uniform circular motions, correcting what
seemed to be a defect in Ptolemy's system.
Unfortunately, uniform circular motion is not what
happens in the solar system, which runs on
elliptical orbits; and this model was no more
precise in predicting ephemerides than the then
current tables based on Ptolemy's model.
Furthermore, he badly underestimated the size of
the solar system, like most of the astronomers of
the time.

The system nevertheless had a large influence on
scientists such as Galileo Galilei|Galileo, Tycho
Brahe, and Johannes Kepler, who adopted,
championed and (especially in Kepler's case)
improved the model.
Galileo's observation of the Moon phase|phases of
Venus (planet)|Venus produced, however, the first
observational evidence for Copernicus' theory.

The Copernican system can be summarized in seven
propositions, as Copernicus himself collected them
in a Compendium of De revolutionibus
(Copernicus)|De revolutionibus that was found and
published in 1878:
#Orbits and celestial spheres do not have a
unique, common, center.
#The center of the Earth is not the center of the
Universe, but only the center of the Earth's mass
and of the lunar orbit.
#All the planets move along orbits whose center is
the Sun, therefore the Sun is the center of the
World. (Copernicus was never certain whether the
Sun moved or not, claiming that the center of the
World is 'in the Sun, or near it.')
#The distance between the Earth and the Sun,
compared with the distance between the Earth and
the fixed stars, is very small.
#The daytime movement of the Sun is only apparent,
and represents the effect of a rotation that the
Earth makes every 24 hours around its axis, always
parallel to itself.
#The Earth (together with its Moon, and just like
the other planets) moves around the Sun, so the
movements that the Sun seems making (its apparent
moving during daytime, and its annual moving
through the Zodiac) are nothing else than effects
of the Earth's real movements.
#These movements of the Earth and of the other
planets around the Sun, can explain the stations,
and all the particular characteristics of the
planets' movements.

These propositions represent the exact contrary of
what the dominant geocentric propositions stated.

===De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium===
image:copernicus.jpg|right|frame|Nicolaus
Copernicus
Main article: De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.

The major work of Copernicus, "On the Revolution
of Celestial Spheres" (1543), is the result of
decades of labor. It was dedicated to Pope Paul
III, and is divided into 6 books.

The first book contains a general vision of the
heliocentric theory, and a summarized exposition
of his idea on the World.

The second book is mainly theoretical and reports
the principles of spherical astronomy and a list
of stars (as a basis for the arguments developed
in the following books).

The third book is mainly dedicated to the apparent
movements of the Sun and to related phenomena.

The fourth book contains a similar description of
the Moon and its orbital movements.

The fifth and the sixth books contain the concrete
exposition of the new system.

==Copernicus and Copernicanism==
Copernicus' theories have an extraordinary
relevance in the history of human knowledge. Many
authors suggest that only Euclid|Euclid's
Euclidean geometry|geometry, Charles
Darwin|Darwin's Evolution, or Isaac
Newton|Newton's physics could have a similar
influence on human culture in general and on
science in particular.

Many meanings have been seen in his theory, quite
apart from its scientific value. His work cut
across science and religion, dogmatism and freedom
of scientific investigation. His academic standing
is often compared with Galileo Galilei.

When his work was published, it contradicted then
accepted religious dogma: the suggestion being
that there is no need for an entity (God) that
from outside could give a soul, a power and a life
to the World and to Human beings when science can
explain everything attributed to Him.

However, Copernicanism also opened a way to
immanence, the view that the divine force, or the
divine being, pervades through all things that
exist, which has been developed further in modern
philosophy. Immanentism also leads into
metaphysical subjectivism|subjectivism: the theory
that perception creates reality, and that there is
no underlying, true, reality that exists
independent of perception. Accordingly some find
that Copernicanism demolished the foundations of
mediaeval science and metaphysics.

One of the consequences of Copernicanism is that
scientific laws must not necessarily coincide with
appearance. This contrasts with Aristotle's
system, which placed much more value on knowledge
gained from the senses.

Copernicus' innovation was a scientific
revolution. Some say "the" revolution
http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/timel.htm.
Immanuel Kant, for instance, caught the symbolic
character of Copernicus' revolution (of which he
put in evidence the transcendental rationalism)
postulating that human rationality was the real
legislator of observed phenomena. More recent
philosophers also have found Copernicanism to
remain valid and retain valuable philosophical
meaning.

==Discussion==
Copernicus' lived in early 16th century Prussia
and Poland, and was influenced by the cultural,
religious, and social contexts of life at the
time. He was well educated. At the University of
Krak贸w, which he attended in 1491 and 1492,
Copernicus studied both mathematics and astronomy
in common with all university students of that
time. There is evidence that his interest in these
subjects continued after he had left Krak贸w.

The Earth-centered Ptolemaic cosmology had been
the accepted model of the universe since the 2nd
century BC. Ptolemy's model explained each
planet's circular motion individually and was the
first model of the universe to explain some of the
eccentric behaviour of the planets. It maintained
that all planetary motion, and the motion of the
Moon, the Sun, and the stars was circular, around
a stationary Earth.

An accurate calculation of the astronomical year
was important to a clergyman, like Copernicus,
allowing him to forecast properly the various
festivals that comprised the liturgical calendar.
The mathematical confusion that Copernicus said
caused him to develop an alternative to the
geocentric model derived from an inadequate
reconciliation of the Aristotelian model and
amendments to it by Ptolemy.

The Ptolemaic geocentric model was complicated and
inconsistent in Copernicus' estimations and
observations, including one in 1497 of the star
Aldebaran, that did not coincide with predictions
made by Ptolemy. Nor did the Ptolemaic model
explain precession. Precession is the phenomenon
by which the Earth's axis "wobbles". This
characteristic of the Earth's movement is apparent
only with observation over long periods of time.
In Copernicus' view, Ptolemy's explanation failed
to provide an accurate mathematical description of
the universe. His heliocentric universe theory
accomplished this by dispensing with individual
explanations for the motion of each planet, and
replacing them with a description that applied to
all the planets, including the Earth.

Copernicus' mathematical experience engendered in
his thought a desire for a simpler and more
elegant model of the universe. He was acquainted
with ideas espoused by other classical authors.
Some of the ideas expressed by Philolaus (5th
century BC) and Heraclides (4th century BC),
proposed cosmological models in which the Earth
moved. Aristarchus (3rd century BC) proposed an
openly heliocentric model of the universe.
Heraclides' description of the revolutions of
Mercury (planet)|Mercury and Venus (planet)|Venus
around the Sun might have led Copernicus to
consider that the other planets, including the
Earth, did the same.

Elegance was a consequence of the overall
simplicity of Copernicus' cosmology and much of
this seeming simplicity resulted from his
retention of circular orbits for the planets
around the central Sun. Copernicus used the
eccentrics, epicycles, and equants of Ptolemaic
cosmology, but added three kinds of motion to
describe the observed behaviour of the Earth:
*Annual motion — the yearly orbit around the
Sun
*Daily rotation — the motion around a tilted
axis that results in day and night
*Precession — the axial wobble mentioned
earlier that explains why the position of the
fixed stars seems to change over long periods of
time.

Until 1543, the year that Copernicus died, and the
year in which his de Revolutionibus was published,
and for many years afterwards, Copernicus'
description of the motion of the Earth was not
ratified by empirical evidence. In his
unauthorized and anonymous preface to de
Revolutionibus, Andreas Osiander was technically
correct when he made reference to "the hypothesis
of this work". However, its consistency with the
observed behaviour of the universe in a time
before the telescope made more detailed
observation and the gathering of more accurate
measurements practicable, gave the Copernican
model its strongest support. Not much more than a
century later, Kepler had certainly despatched the
circular orbits of the planets and replaced them
with ellipses, but the Copernican heliocentric
universe was still intact.

In his own preface to his work, dedicated to Pope
Paul III, Copernicus took care to point out that
his motives for developing a cosmology that
included a moving, rather than a stationary,
Earth, were inspired by his dissatisfaction with
the mathematical and astronomical descriptions of
the geocentric model, and were not intended to
defy the written Word. "Mathematics", he says, "is
written for mathematicians". Copernicus seems to
have been benefited from the attitude of the
bishops who were his superiors in the church -
Johann Dantiscus and Tiedmann Giese. Both
preferred, at least initially, to promote
tolerance of differing views within the church
rather than open discord, and both encouraged
Copernicus' publication of his scientific beliefs.
However, the lenient attitudes in Chelmno, where
Copernicus carried out much of his work, began to
change and might have contributed to Copernicus'
isolation in the last years of his life. For
orthodox Catholics, the Copernican model of the
universe might have seemed too radically different
from the geocentric model, sustained as it was by
its agreement with many scriptural references.
They might not have been ready to change to an
understanding of the Bible as a source only of
moral and spirituality|spiritual, rather than
science|scientific, wisdom.

As far as Copernicus was concerned, the Sun, a
distinctive element in classical thought, held the
central and most important position in the
universe, gave added credence to his cosmology.
His reverence for the sun can be seen in the most
famous passage of de Revolutionibus:

:"In the center of all rests the Sun. For who
would place this lamp of a very beautful temple in
another or better place then this from which it
can illuminate everything at the same time? As a
matter of fact, not unhappily do some call it the
lantern; others, the mind, and still others, the
pilot of the world. Trismegistus calls it a
'visible God'; Sophocles' Electra, 'that which
gazes upon all things.' And so the Sun, as if
resting on a kingly throne, governs the family of
stars which wheel around."

In this discussion of Copernicus' reasons for
discarding such a long-held belief as the
geocentric cosmology of Ptolemy, we can see that
the Copernican revolution was simmering against a
background revolution of theological thought
— the Reformation. Neo-Platonic and classical
ideas formed the intellectual environment in which
Copernicus worked. Although not holding ordained
office within the Catholic Church, Copernicus was
devout and unwilling to be openly defiant of the
Church's teaching, but, in common with supporters
of the Reformation, Copernicus was criticizing
orthodox theory and belief. His reasons for doing
so lay in his dissatisfaction with the
inadequacies of the geocentric model, in his
strong belief in the truth of the solution to the
problem that he developed, its elegance and
relative simplicity, and its coincidence with
observation and with the classical ideals to which
he had subscribed since his youth.

==Quotes==
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe:
:"Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have
exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than
the doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely
become known as round and complete in itself when
it was asked to waive the tremendous privilege of
being the center of the universe. Never, perhaps,
was a greater demand made on mankind - for by this
admission so many things vanished in mist and
smoke! What became of our Eden, our world of
innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony of the
senses; the conviction of a poetic - religious
faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish
to let all this go and offered every possible
resistance to a doctrine which in its converts
authorized and demanded a freedom of view and
greatness of thought so far unknown, indeed not
even dreamed of."

Copernicus:
:For I am not so enamored of my own opinions that
I disregard what others may think of them. I am
aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject
to the judgement of ordinary persons, because it
is his endeavor to seek the truth in all things,
to the extent permitted to human reason by God.
Yet I hold that completely erroneous views should
be shunned. Those who know that the consensus of
many centuries has sanctioned the conception that
the earth remains at rest in the middle of the
heaven as its center would, I reflected, regard it
as an insane pronouncement if I made the opposite
assertion that the earth moves.

:For when a ship is floating calmly along, the
sailors see its motion mirrored in everything
outside, while on the other hand they suppose that
they are stationary, together with everything on
board. In the same way, the motion of the earth
can unquestionably produce the impression that the
entire universe is rotating.

:“Therefore alongside the ancient
hypotheses, which are no more probable, let us
permit these new hypotheses also to become known,
especially since they are admirable as well as
simple and bring with them a huge treasure of very
skillful observations. So far as hypotheses are
concerned, let no one expect anything certain from
astronomy, which cannot furnish it, lest he accept
as the truth ideas conceived for another purpose,
and depart from this study a greater fool than
when he entered it. Farewell.”

==University==
Copernicus was honoured by Poland when the
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun|Nicolaus
Copernicus University in Toruń, established
1945, was named after him.

==See also==
* inferior planet
* superior planet
* World Almanac's Ten Most Influential People of
the Second Millennium
* Copernicus (Lunar crater)

==Reference==
DC Goodman, CA Russell, eds. The Rise of
Scientific Europe 1500-1800. Bath, UK: Hodder
&

==External links==

*http://www.frombork.art.pl/Ang01.htm Nicholaus
Copernicus Museum in Frombork
*Portraits of Copernicus:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Pi
ctDisplay/Copernicus.html Portrait;
http://www.frombork.art.pl/Ang10.htm Nicolaus
Copernicus
*http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/coperastrol.html
Copernicus and Astrology - A reliable website from
Cambridge University describing Copernicus'
astrological activities.
*http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Images/Astro
/Conceptions/copernican_universe.gif The
Copernican Universe from the De Revolutionibus
*http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/planets/cop.php?num
=F.1&exp=false&lang=lat&CISOPTR=0&limit=cop&view=f
ull De Revolutionibus, 1543 first edition - Full
digital facsimile, Lehigh University.
*http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/bjmanus/revol/titlpg_e.ht
ml De Revolutionibus, autograph manuscript - Full
digital facsimile, Jagiellonian University.
*http://www.hao.ucar.edu/public/education/sp/image
s/derevolutionibus.html The front page of the De
Revolutionibus
*http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-Copern
icus.html The text of the De Revolutionibus
*http://www.flex.com/~jai/astrology/retrograde.htm
l A java applet about Retrograde Motion
*http://www.bo.astro.it/dip/Museum/italiano/sto1_0
8.html Copernicus in Bologna - in Italian
*"http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/featur
e_1746110.html Chasing Copernicus: The Book Nobody
Read". - Was One of the Greatest Scientific Works
Really Ignored?. All Things Considered, NPR. March
4, 2004.
*http://www.copernicusfdn.org Copernicus
Foundation Chicago
*http://www.uni.torun.pl/en/ Nicolaus Copernicus
University in Toruń
*http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Nicolaus Copernicus (in Latin; Polish
language|Polish Miko艂aj Kopernik, German
language|German Nikolaus Kopernikus); February 19,
1473 – May 24, 1543) was a Poland|Polish
astronomer, mathematician and economist who
developed the heliocentrism|heliocentric
(Sun-centered) theory of the solar system in a
form detailed enough to make it scientifically
useful. His main occupations and services rendered
were in Royal Prussia as church canon
(priest)|canon, governor and administrator,
jurist, astrologer and as a doctor. Astronomy was
actually a byproduct, a hobby of his. His theory
about the Sun as the center of the solar system,
turning over the traditional geocentric theory
(that placed Earth at the center of the Universe),
is considered one of the most important discovery
(observation)|discoveries ever, and is the
fundamental starting point of modern astronomy and
modern science itself (it inaugurated the
scientific revolution). His theory affected many
other aspects of human life as well, opening the
door to young astronomers everywhere to challenge
the dogmas and never take anything at face value.

==Biography==


Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of
Torun|Toru艅 in Poland. His father Nikolas, a
citizen of Krak贸w|Cracow (at that time the
capital of Poland), moved there in 1460 and became
a respected citizen of Toru艅 as well, once the
war with the Teutonic Knights was over. He was ten
years of age when his father, a wealthy
businessman and copper trader, died. Little is
known of his mother, Barbara Watzenrode, but she
appears to have predeceased her husband. His
maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, a church canon
(priest)|canon and later the Prince-Bishop
governor of Warmia, raised him and his three other
siblings after the death of Copernicus' father.
His brother Andrew became canon in Frombork. A
sister, Barbara, became a Benedictine nun and the
other sister, Katharina, married a businessman and
city councillor, Barthel Gertner.

In 1491 Copernicus entered the Jagiellonian
University in Krak贸w, and here he encountered
astronomy for the first time, thanks to his
teacher Albert Brudzewski. This science soon
fascinated him, as his books (stolen by Swedes
during The Deluge, and now in the Uppsala
University Library) show. After four years and a
brief stay in Torun|Toru艅, he moved to Italy,
where he studied law and medicine at the
universities of Bologna and Padua. His uncle
financed his education and wished for him to
become a bishop as well. However, while studying
canon law|canon and civil law at Ferrara, he met
his teacher Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara, a
famous astronomer. He followed his lessons and
became a disciple and assistant.

The first observation Copernicus made in 1497
together with Domenico Novara, are recorded in De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.

In 1497 his uncle was ordained the bishop of
Warmia and Copernicus was named a canon in the
Frombork cathedral, but he waited in Italy for the
great Roman Jubilee|Jubilee of 1500. Copernicus
went to Rome, where he could observe a lunar
eclipse and where he gave some lessons of
astronomy or mathematics (unfortunately, nothing
of this remains to us).

He would have then visited Frombork only in 1501.
As soon as he reached this town, he asked and
obtained permission to return to Italy to complete
his studies in Padua (with Guarico and Fracastoro)
and in Ferrara (with Bianchini), where in 1503
received his doctoral degree in canon law. It has
been supposed that it was in Padua that he gained
access to those passages of Cicero and Plato about
the opinion of Ancients on the movement of the
Earth, having the first intuition of his theory.
His collection of observations and ideas on the
theory started in 1504.

Having left Italy at the end of his studies, he
came to live and work in Frombork. Some time
before his return to Warmia, he had received a
position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy
Cross in Wroclaw|Breslau (Wroc艂aw), Silesia,
which he held for many years until he resigned a
few years prior to his death, when he
progressively became ill. Throughout his lifetime
he made astronomical observations and
calculations, but always in his spare time and
never as a profession.

Copernicus worked for years with Prussian diet on
monetary reform and published some studies about
the value of money; as a governor of Warmia, he
administered taxes and dealt out justice. It was
at this time that Copernicus came up with one of
the earliest iterations of the theory now known as
Gresham's Law. During these years he also
travelled extensively on government business and
as a diplomat, on the behalf of the Prince-Bishop
of Warmia.

In 1514 he made his "Commentariolus"—a
short, handwritten text describing his ideas about
the heliocentric hypothesis—available to his
friends. From there he continued gathering
evidence for a more detailed work.

During the war between the Teutonic Order and the
Kingdom of Poland (1519–1524) Copernicus
successfully defended Olsztyn on the head of royal
troops besieged by the troops of Albert of
Brandenburg.

In 1533 Albert Widmanstadt delivered a series of
lectures in Rome outlining Copernicus' theory. In
1536 his work was already in a definitive form,
and some rumours about his theory had reached the
scientists of all Europe. From many parts of the
continent, Copernicus received invitations to
publish it, but he felt quite apprehensive of
persecution for his revolutionary work by the
establishment of the time. The cardinal
(Catholicism)|cardinal Nicola Schoenberg of Capua
wrote him asking him to communicate his ideas more
widely and requested a copy for himself;
"Therefore, learned man, without wishing to be
inopportune, I beg you most emphatically to
communicate your discovery to the learned world,
and to send me as soon as possible your theories
about the Universe, together with the tables and
whatever else you have pertaining to the subject."
Some have proposed that this note may have made
Copernicus nervous of publication whereas others
have suggested that the church wanted to ensure
that his ideas were published.

Copernicus was still completing his work (even if
he was not convinced to publish it), when in 1539
Georg Joachim Rheticus, a great mathematician at
Wittenberg, directly arrived in Frombork. Philipp
Melanchthon had arranged with several astronomers
for Rheticus to visit and study with them.
Rheticus became a disciple of Copernicus' and
stayed with him for two years, in which he wrote a
book, Narratio prima, in which he included the
essence of the theory.

In 1542, in the name of Copernicus, Rheticus
published a treatise on trigonometry (later
included in the second book of De revolutionibus
(Copernicus)|De revolutionibus). Under the strong
pressure from Rheticus, and having seen that the
first general reception of his work had not been
favorable, Copernicus finally agreed to give the
book to his close friend Tiedemann Giese, (the
bishop of Chelmno Land, to be delivered to
Rheticus for printing at Nuremberg.

Legend says that the first printed copy of De
revolutionibus (Copernicus)|De revolutionibus was
put in Copernicus's hands the same day of his
death, so that he could say goodbye to his opus
vitae. He allegedly awoke from his stroke induced
coma, looked at his book, and died peacefully.

Copernicus was buried in the Frombork Cathedral.
However, a group of archaeologists searching for
the body of Copernicus in 2004 failed to find the
corpse of the astronomer. They found, however,
several interesting graves from various time
periods. The search for the body of Copernicus
will continue in 2005.

See also Copernicus' nationality|discussion about
Copernicus' nationality.

==The Copernican heliocentric system==
===Earlier theories===

===Copernican Theory===
Copernicus' major theory was published in the book
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) in the year
of his death 1543, even though he had arrived at
it several decades earlier.

This book marks the beginning of the shift from a
geocentric universe|geocentric (and
anthropocentrism|anthropocentric) universe with
the Earth at its center. Copernicus held that the
Earth is another planet revolving around the fixed
sun once a year, and turning on its Axis of
rotation|axis once a day. He arrived at the
correct order of the known planets and explained
the precession of the equinoxes correctly by a
slow change in the position of the Earth's
rotational axis. He also gave a clear account of
the cause of the seasons: that the Earth's axis is
not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit. He
added another motion to the Earth, by which the
axis is kept pointed throughout the year at the
same place in the heavens; from the time of
Galileo it has been recognized that for it not to
point to the same place would be a motion.

He also replaced Ptolemy's equant circles with
epicycles. This is the main source of the
statement that his system had even more epicycles
than Ptolemy's. With this change his system had
only uniform circular motions, correcting what
seemed to be a defect in Ptolemy's system.
Unfortunately, uniform circular motion is not what
happens in the solar system, which runs on
elliptical orbits; and this model was no more
precise in predicting ephemerides than the then
current tables based on Ptolemy's model.
Furthermore, he badly underestimated the size of
the solar system, like most of the astronomers of
the time.

The system nevertheless had a large influence on
scientists such as Galileo Galilei|Galileo, Tycho
Brahe, and Johannes Kepler, who adopted,
championed and (especially in Kepler's case)
improved the model.
Galileo's observation of the Moon phase|phases of
Venus (planet)|Venus produced, however, the first
observational evidence for Copernicus' theory.

The Copernican system can be summarized in seven
propositions, as Copernicus himself collected them
in a Compendium of De revolutionibus
(Copernicus)|De revolutionibus that was found and
published in 1878:
#Orbits and celestial spheres do not have a
unique, common, center.
#The center of the Earth is not the center of the
Universe, but only the center of the Earth's mass
and of the lunar orbit.
#All the planets move along orbits whose center is
the Sun, therefore the Sun is the center of the
World. (Copernicus was never certain whether the
Sun moved or not, claiming that the center of the
World is 'in the Sun, or near it.')
#The distance between the Earth and the Sun,
compared with the distance between the Earth and
the fixed stars, is very small.
#The daytime movement of the Sun is only apparent,
and represents the effect of a rotation that the
Earth makes every 24 hours around its axis, always
parallel to itself.
#The Earth (together with its Moon, and just like
the other planets) moves around the Sun, so the
movements that the Sun seems making (its apparent
moving during daytime, and its annual moving
through the Zodiac) are nothing else than effects
of the Earth's real movements.
#These movements of the Earth and of the other
planets around the Sun, can explain the stations,
and all the particular characteristics of the
planets' movements.

These propositions represent the exact contrary of
what the dominant geocentric propositions stated.

===De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium===

Main article: De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.

The major work of Copernicus, "On the Revolution
of Celestial Spheres" (1543), is the result of
decades of labor. It was dedicated to Pope Paul
III, and is divided into 6 books.

The first book contains a general vision of the
heliocentric theory, and a summarized exposition
of his idea on the World.

The second book is mainly theoretical and reports
the principles of spherical astronomy and a list
of stars (as a basis for the arguments developed
in the following books).

The third book is mainly dedicated to the apparent
movements of the Sun and to related phenomena.

The fourth book contains a similar description of
the Moon and its orbital movements.

The fifth and the sixth books contain the concrete
exposition of the new system.

==Copernicus and Copernicanism==
Copernicus' theories have an extraordinary
relevance in the history of human knowledge. Many
authors suggest that only Euclid|Euclid's
Euclidean geometry|geometry, Charles
Darwin|Darwin's Evolution, or Isaac
Newton|Newton's physics could have a similar
influence on human culture in general and on
science in particular.

Many meanings have been seen in his theory, quite
apart from its scientific value. His work cut
across science and religion, dogmatism and freedom
of scientific investigation. His academic standing
is often compared with Galileo Galilei.

When his work was published, it contradicted then
accepted religious dogma: the suggestion being
that there is no need for an entity (God) that
from outside could give a soul, a power and a life
to the World and to Human beings when science can
explain everything attributed to Him.

However, Copernicanism also opened a way to
immanence, the view that the divine force, or the
divine being, pervades through all things that
exist, which has been developed further in modern
philosophy. Immanentism also leads into
metaphysical subjectivism|subjectivism: the theory
that perception creates reality, and that there is
no underlying, true, reality that exists
independent of perception. Accordingly some find
that Copernicanism demolished the foundations of
mediaeval science and metaphysics.

One of the consequences of Copernicanism is that
scientific laws must not necessarily coincide with
appearance. This contrasts with Aristotle's
system, which placed much more value on knowledge
gained from the senses.

Copernicus' innovation was a scientific
revolution. Some say "the" revolution
http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/timel.htm.
Immanuel Kant, for instance, caught the symbolic
character of Copernicus' revolution (of which he
put in evidence the transcendental rationalism)
postulating that human rationality was the real
legislator of observed phenomena. More recent
philosophers also have found Copernicanism to
remain valid and retain valuable philosophical
meaning.

==Discussion==
Copernicus' lived in early 16th century Prussia
and Poland, and was influenced by the cultural,
religious, and social contexts of life at the
time. He was well educated. At the University of
Krak贸w, which he attended in 1491 and 1492,
Copernicus studied both mathematics and astronomy
in common with all university students of that
time. There is evidence that his interest in these
subjects continued after he had left Krak贸w.

The Earth-centered Ptolemaic cosmology had been
the accepted model of the universe since the 2nd
century BC. Ptolemy's model explained each
planet's circular motion individually and was the
first model of the universe to explain some of the
eccentric behaviour of the planets. It maintained
that all planetary motion, and the motion of the
Moon, the Sun, and the stars was circular, around
a stationary Earth.

An accurate calculation of the astronomical year
was important to a clergyman, like Copernicus,
allowing him to forecast properly the various
festivals that comprised the liturgical calendar.
The mathematical confusion that Copernicus said
caused him to develop an alternative to the
geocentric model derived from an inadequate
reconciliation of the Aristotelian model and
amendments to it by Ptolemy.

The Ptolemaic geocentric model was complicated and
inconsistent in Copernicus' estimations and
observations, including one in 1497 of the star
Aldebaran, that did not coincide with predictions
made by Ptolemy. Nor did the Ptolemaic model
explain precession. Precession is the phenomenon
by which the Earth's axis "wobbles". This
characteristic of the Earth's movement is apparent
only with observation over long periods of time.
In Copernicus' view, Ptolemy's explanation failed
to provide an accurate mathematical description of
the universe. His heliocentric universe theory
accomplished this by dispensing with individual
explanations for the motion of each planet, and
replacing them with a description that applied to
all the planets, including the Earth.

Copernicus' mathematical experience engendered in
his thought a desire for a simpler and more
elegant model of the universe. He was acquainted
with ideas espoused by other classical authors.
Some of the ideas expressed by Philolaus (5th
century BC) and Heraclides (4th century BC),
proposed cosmological models in which the Earth
moved. Aristarchus (3rd century BC) proposed an
openly heliocentric model of the universe.
Heraclides' description of the revolutions of
Mercury (planet)|Mercury and Venus (planet)|Venus
around the Sun might have led Copernicus to
consider that the other planets, including the
Earth, did the same.

Elegance was a consequence of the overall
simplicity of Copernicus' cosmology and much of
this seeming simplicity resulted from his
retention of circular orbits for the planets
around the central Sun. Copernicus used the
eccentrics, epicycles, and equants of Ptolemaic
cosmology, but added three kinds of motion to
describe the observed behaviour of the Earth:
*Annual motion — the yearly orbit around the
Sun
*Daily rotation — the motion around a tilted
axis that results in day and night
*Precession — the axial wobble mentioned
earlier that explains why the position of the
fixed stars seems to change over long periods of
time.

Until 1543, the year that Copernicus died, and the
year in which his de Revolutionibus was published,
and for many years afterwards, Copernicus'
description of the motion of the Earth was not
ratified by empirical evidence. In his
unauthorized and anonymous preface to de
Revolutionibus, Andreas Osiander was technically
correct when he made reference to "the hypothesis
of this work". However, its consistency with the
observed behaviour of the universe in a time
before the telescope made more detailed
observation and the gathering of more accurate
measurements practicable, gave the Copernican
model its strongest support. Not much more than a
century later, Kepler had certainly despatched the
circular orbits of the planets and replaced them
with ellipses, but the Copernican heliocentric
universe was still intact.

In his own preface to his work, dedicated to Pope
Paul III, Copernicus took care to point out that
his motives for developing a cosmology that
included a moving, rather than a stationary,
Earth, were inspired by his dissatisfaction with
the mathematical and astronomical descriptions of
the geocentric model, and were not intended to
defy the written Word. "Mathematics", he says, "is
written for mathematicians". Copernicus seems to
have been benefited from the attitude of the
bishops who were his superiors in the church -
Johann Dantiscus and Tiedmann Giese. Both
preferred, at least initially, to promote
tolerance of differing views within the church
rather than open discord, and both encouraged
Copernicus' publication of his scientific beliefs.
However, the lenient attitudes in Chelmno, where
Copernicus carried out much of his work, began to
change and might have contributed to Copernicus'
isolation in the last years of his life. For
orthodox Catholics, the Copernican model of the
universe might have seemed too radically different
from the geocentric model, sustained as it was by
its agreement with many scriptural references.
They might not have been ready to change to an
understanding of the Bible as a source only of
moral and spirituality|spiritual, rather than
science|scientific, wisdom.

As far as Copernicus was concerned, the Sun, a
distinctive element in classical thought, held the
central and most important position in the
universe, gave added credence to his cosmology.
His reverence for the sun can be seen in the most
famous passage of de Revolutionibus:

:"In the center of all rests the Sun. For who
would place this lamp of a very beautful temple in
another or better place then this from which it
can illuminate everything at the same time? As a
matter of fact, not unhappily do some call it the
lantern; others, the mind, and still others, the
pilot of the world. Trismegistus calls it a
'visible God'; Sophocles' Electra, 'that which
gazes upon all things.' And so the Sun, as if
resting on a kingly throne, governs the family of
stars which wheel around."

In this discussion of Copernicus' reasons for
discarding such a long-held belief as the
geocentric cosmology of Ptolemy, we can see that
the Copernican revolution was simmering against a
background revolution of theological thought
— the Reformation. Neo-Platonic and
classical ideas formed the intellectual
environment in which Copernicus worked. Although
not holding ordained office within the Catholic
Church, Copernicus was devout and unwilling to be
openly defiant of the Church's teaching, but, in
common with supporters of the Reformation,
Copernicus was criticizing orthodox theory and
belief. His reasons for doing so lay in his
dissatisfaction with the inadequacies of the
geocentric model, in his strong belief in the
truth of the solution to the problem that he
developed, its elegance and relative simplicity,
and its coincidence with observation and with the
classical ideals to which he had subscribed since
his youth.

==Quotes==
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe:
:"Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have
exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than
the doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely
become known as round and complete in itself when
it was asked to waive the tremendous privilege of
being the center of the universe. Never, perhaps,
was a greater demand made on mankind - for by this
admission so many things vanished in mist and
smoke! What became of our Eden, our world of
innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony of the
senses; the conviction of a poetic - religious
faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish
to let all this go and offered every possible
resistance to a doctrine which in its converts
authorized and demanded a freedom of view and
greatness of thought so far unknown, indeed not
even dreamed of."

Copernicus:
:For I am not so enamored of my own opinions that
I disregard what others may think of them. I am
aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject
to the judgement of ordinary persons, because it
is his endeavor to seek the truth in all things,
to the extent permitted to human reason by God.
Yet I hold that completely erroneous views should
be shunned. Those who know that the consensus of
many centuries has sanctioned the conception that
the earth remains at rest in the middle of the
heaven as its center would, I reflected, regard it
as an insane pronouncement if I made the opposite
assertion that the earth moves.

:For when a ship is floating calmly along, the
sailors see its motion mirrored in everything
outside, while on the other hand they suppose that
they are stationary, together with everything on
board. In the same way, the motion of the earth
can unquestionably produce the impression that the
entire universe is rotating.

:鈥淭herefore alongside the ancient hypotheses,
which are no more probable, let us permit these
new hypotheses also to become known, especially
since they are admirable as well as simple and
bring with them a huge treasure of very skillful
observations. So far as hypotheses are concerned,
let no one expect anything certain from astronomy,
which cannot furnish it, lest he accept as the
truth ideas conceived for another purpose, and
depart from this study a greater fool than when he
entered it. Farewell.鈥�

==University==
Copernicus was honoured by Poland when the
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun|Nicolaus
Copernicus University in Toru艅, established 1945,
was named after him.

==See also==
* inferior planet
* superior planet
* World Almanac's Ten Most Influential People of
the Second Millennium
* Copernicus (Lunar crater)

==Reference==
DC Goodman, CA Russell, eds. The Rise of
Scientific Europe 1500-1800. Bath, UK: Hodder
&

==External links==

*http://www.frombork.art.pl/Ang01.htm Nicholaus
Copernicus Museum in Frombork
*Portraits of Copernicus:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Pi
ctDisplay/Copernicus.html Portrait;
http://www.frombork.art.pl/Ang10.htm Nicolaus
Copernicus
*http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/coperastrol.html
Copernicus and Astrology - A reliable website from
Cambridge University describing Copernicus'
astrological activities.
*http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Images/Astro
/Conceptions/copernican_universe.gif The
Copernican Universe from the De Revolutionibus
*http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/planets/cop.php?num
=F.1&exp=false&lang=lat&CISOPTR=0&limit=cop&view=f
ull De Revolutionibus, 1543 first edition - Full
digital facsimile, Lehigh University.
*http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/bjmanus/revol/titlpg_e.ht
ml De Revolutionibus, autograph manuscript - Full
digital facsimile, Jagiellonian University.
*http://www.hao.ucar.edu/public/education/sp/image
s/derevolutionibus.html The front page of the De
Revolutionibus
*http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-Copern
icus.html The text of the De Revolutionibus
*http://www.flex.com/~jai/astrology/retrograde.htm
l A java applet about Retrograde Motion
*http://www.bo.astro.it/dip/Museum/italiano/sto1_0
8.html Copernicus in Bologna - in Italian
*"http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/featur
e_1746110.html Chasing Copernicus: The Book Nobody
Read". - Was One of the Greatest Scientific Works
Really Ignored?. All Things Considered, NPR. March
4, 2004.
*http://www.copernicusfdn.org Copernicus
Foundation Chicago
*http://www.uni.torun.pl/en/ Nicolaus Copernicus
University in Toru艅
*http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry